To celebrate 10 years of convincing people to spend hundreds on noise-canceling cans, Sony has released a special edition called 1000X The Collexion. Priced at $650, it's a luxed-up version of last year's WH-1000XM6, which normally retails for less and doesn't try to pretend it's jewelry.
Sony's special edition swaps the XM6's matte plastic for polished and brushed metal accents on the yokes, buttons, headband, and ports. The earcups are slimmer, the headband wider, and the ear pads thicker - addressing two major complaints about the XM6: comfort and style, both of which were apparently lacking to the point of being immediately uncomfortable for more than half an hour.
The internal upgrades include a unidirectional carbon driver (instead of the XM6's standard carbon driver), which reduces distortion by reducing dome flexion, and a new V3 chip powering DSEE Ultimate, Sony's most advanced audio upscaling algorithm. The result is a sound profile that's "more lively," with deeper bass and less sharp highs - basically, the opposite of what made the XM6 fatiguingly analytical.
Spatial audio gets two new modes for music and gaming, though the author notes Sony's 360 Upmix still sounds robotic and digitized on some tracks. The headphones support LDAC and LC3 codecs, 3.5mm wired listening, noise cancellation that's on par with the Sonos Ace or WH-1000XM5, and ambient mode. However, despite costing $100 more than the XM6, the Collexion has six fewer hours of battery life and slightly less effective noise canceling - because luxury apparently means trade-offs.
The carrying case also gets a redesign, featuring a cutout below the headband that creates a handle - a clever fix for the non-folding hinges. At 320g, the Collexion is lighter than Apple's 386g AirPods Max 2, and the weight is well-distributed thanks to the sturdy headband.
Sony's special edition marks a decade of the 1000X series, which went from proving it could compete to becoming the industry standard. But if you don't care about looking fancy and just want practical headphones with better noise canceling and longer battery life, the WH-1000XM6 remains the sensible choice - which, let's be honest, is not the vibe Sony is going for here.